TOPIC: The Day an Ugly Dress Broke the Internet

February 26, 2015. The day it all happened... The day, dare I say it, a hideous dress shook the internet world.

It all started when Tumblr user "swiked" uploaded the infamous photo of a random dress, asking if it was blue and black or white and gold, because she and her friend were debating on it. In one day alone, this dress took the internet by storm as it was passed from Facebook post to Twitter post. It wasn't long until the news chimed in on this spike in the ridiculous infatuation the public shows on the matter. Not like there aren't a million other things going on in the world, let's focus on this dress.

As I type this, friends and family are at each other's throats as they protest that the dress is definitely blue, and vice versa. How people see gold, is beyond me. The dress is clearly blue and black and incredibly tacky. Even color perception scientists have tapped into the trend, further explaining on a scientific level how it is possible that this mystery dress changes color. It mostly comes down to lighting and how someone's subjective retina complex will receive the colors. Jay Neitz, PhD, of the University of Washington commented on the national conundrum, "In general, you're going to see differently than the person next to you, but this is a huge difference. Now I'm going to spend the rest of my life working on this. I thought I was going to cure blindness, but now I guess I'll do this.".

Does this say something profound about our focus as a society, and how we choose to prioritize what matters in the world?

My advice? Hold off from signing into Facebook for a day or two. The amount of posts on the matter is enough to make you want to pull your hair out. Let 'em tire themselves out, as they do with all trends.

I had no idea what the dress debate was all about. I saw a blue and black dress posted on my cousin's instagram that morning, but then once at work debates were heated! Guys were weighing in and they had strong opinions too. When a co-worker brought it up on her computer I saw blue and black again... but then she turned her laptop towards another co-worker and I saw the gold and white!!

It's funny though because I was a photographer for several years and my immediate thought was that the photo needed to be color-balanced. Thanks to Wired.com I found this article to be on point with that and some science facts - www.wired.com/2015/02/science-one-agrees-color-dress/